


She Likes Sequins

by Jag_Erin



Series: Tomorrow Is Another Day [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Coffee, Cute Kids, F/M, Fluffy, No Smut, Non-Adult, Number Five Before The Time Travel, Romance, Saddish ending, Smart Kids, Underage Characters, Young romance, doughnuts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:35:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26071261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jag_Erin/pseuds/Jag_Erin
Summary: Number Five didn't pick the name Dolores for no reason.
Relationships: Dolores & Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy), Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy)/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Tomorrow Is Another Day [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1903129
Comments: 8
Kudos: 74





	1. Chapter 1

Fame wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, not that he had hopeful thoughts about it to start with. He hadn’t really cared one way or the other if they went public. Father had made the decision and even if he had disagreed, the others would have gone through with it anyway and he would have been outed anyway. Better to just be a part of it and get what he could from it. Really all coming out to the world had done for them was to increase their training time. As closed up in this old house as they had been before, it was worse now, because if they left they would get mobbed by fans.

Five had better things to focus on. Sure it was fun to dick around with some assholes trying to rob banks and stuff, but he had more important things to do. He wanted to time travel and he felt ready to do it. The only thing holding him back was their Father and the lack of time to focus on his own training.

But today was Saturday and they all got free time on Saturdays. He had to be quick though. It was only allowed from Noon to half past noon. After that, it was back to being a member of the group. There were plenty of books in the house library, and even the book he was looking for, but then Father might find out and figure out what he was trying to teach himself. He had to find the book and get back home in thirty minutes. It wouldn’t be the first time he managed it. Even with his abilities, just finding the books he wanted was time-consuming. 

There it was. On a dusty old shelf in the textbook section. ‘The Feynman Lectures on Physics’ from 1963 by Richard Feynman. Five turned the book over in his hands, inspecting it, for a moment before starting for the checkout. Once he checked out, he’d port back home, and he’d still have ten minutes before he had to be at the table for lunch with the family.

“Hey…” he ignored it, assuming it wasn’t for him, “Hey…” this time he turned to see the girl calling out softly to him so as not to upset the librarians.

“Are you talking to me?” 

“Uh, yeah…” he watched as she walked closer. Their outfits weren’t all that different. Both were school uniforms and those tended to only differ per gender and fabric color. Where his blue, tans, and reds; her’s was tan and olive green and white. The tan and white plaid jumper was covered by an olive green blazer. The crest on it told him she went to the private school nearby, “Are you checking that out or just going to read it here?”

He eyed her a bit. She had long brown hair in braids over her shoulders and she was about two inches taller than himself. Father had trained them to take note of appearances quickly. So he did. She was cute, “What business of yours is it?”

She smiled a little, “I was hoping to check it out.”

Five was sure she couldn’t be much older than himself. He knew girls tended to physically mature faster, so he didn’t see her as older just for being a little taller. What did a regular girl care about this book, “Checking it out,” he said lowly as he looked her over again.

“Oh…” she paused, “Will you have it long? I really need it and my school doesn’t have it.”

What were the odds of two twelve-year-olds needing a book like this at the same time? It made Five suspicious, “What do you need it for?”

“What do you need it for?” she shot back.

“None of your business.”

“Then it’s none of yours either,” she snapped and he felt the corner of his mouth twitch a little as he started to smile. He restrained it though and kept it from fully forming.

“I should have it back in a week,” he admitted. Five wouldn’t change his plans on how he wanted to study it, but he had estimated a week to get through it and get what he needed from it.

The girl nodded a little, “I guess I can wait a week.”

The clock was ticking. He had to get out of here, “If you’re here at the same time, I’ll make sure you get it,” if he turned it in like normal, it would have to wait for one of the librarians to put it up.

She smiled, “I can do that. Same time next Saturday then.”

Her fingers touched the top of her school messenger bag and he noticed the little sequin Saturn sewn onto it. That definitely wasn’t school approved. Five didn’t go to a regular private school, but he knew they had similar dress codes as his Father had for them. She had to put that there herself. She liked planets. She liked sequin, though so did most girls her age, “I’ll make sure to bring it back.”

Five watched as she put her head down a little and started to walk past him. She didn’t acknowledge him the way others outside the school did the last few months. Either she didn’t know who he was or she didn’t care. Either one was fine by him, “Hey, what’s your name?” he called out before she got too far and gave a shushing librarian a glare before looking back at her again.

“Oh, uh, it’s Dolores. You?”

He could have made up a name. The others had started using names Mom had called them, but he didn’t like that. He’d been called Number Five since he was born and he couldn’t think of a more fitting name. He also couldn’t be bothered, “Five.”

“Like the number?”

“You got a problem with that, _Dolores_?” he stressed her name to point out that it wasn’t a common girl’s name anymore. It was an old lady’s name.

“No. No problem. See you next Saturday, Five.”


	2. Chapter 2

Summer for regular, and some private, schools had started. They didn’t get summer breaks though. They had to keep training, learning, and working on missions. If it hadn’t been that way his whole life, he might have been upset about it. But he wasn’t. It was business as usual for him.

Except on Saturdays. 

He had broken their half an hour rule four times since meeting Dolores in April. Today would make number five. Father had made him run extra drills for it and he hadn’t meant to keep doing it. He just lost track of time during their conversations.

Like today. They were sitting next to each other at one of the library tables in the back. A notebook in front of both of them and a small stack of books surrounding them, “What notes did you take?” he asked as they both traded notebooks and kept a copy of Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker in front of them, “What did you think?” she was a good sounding board for his thoughts and ideas.

Dolores shrugged a little, “I found it very pedestrian. I can see how it was more relevant when it was originally published in 1960. Very impactful by sixties standards and I guess for someone unfamiliar with calculus-based physics they would find it useful for starting out.”

That’s what he liked about Dolores. She was able to talk to him on his level. His siblings, while he cared for them, weren’t the brightest. They all studied the same basic materials and took the same basic classes, but Five had always been on a different level than them. Pogo could talk to him on his level, but he liked talking to Dolores, “I hear the American Physical Society is considering naming it the most outstanding introductory physics text of the twentieth century.”

“Of course they are. Because they want to appeal to the lowest common denominator.”

It was hard not to smile when she talked like that. Dolores didn’t pull shots. She said what she thought and he enjoyed that, “So you disagree with that choice? What book would you submit?”

Dolores laughed a little, “It doesn’t matter what I would submit, because they don’t care about my opinions. I’m just a twelve year old trying to graduate high school.”

“Humor me.”

They were both quiet for a long time. It was well past time for him to be home. Father would send them out looking for him soon enough. If they found him here, he wouldn’t get to come anymore. Still, he didn’t move to leave just yet, “For the whole century...hmm...The Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Dirac.”

That was a good choice, “I’d pick that one too.”

“You should write to them and tell them that. They’d listen to you more than they would to me,” they had spent their last Saturday together filtering bits of their own lives into the conversation. She knew he was from the Umbrella Academy and he knew that she was extremely intelligent for someone who wasn’t one of them. He’d even asked her what her birthday was just to be sure. Instead, she was just a twelve-year-old girl who was a freshman at the private high school in the city.

Five supposed being a twelve-year-old getting ready to graduate high school was close enough to strange for him to spend his time with, “Maybe we could write it together next Saturday.”

She pushed some of the hair that had loosened from her braid behind her ear and looked down at the table a bit, “We could. It would be interesting to see how our words work together.”

Try as he might, he was a twelve-year-old boy. Dolores was cute and she was smart. He wanted to know how well other aspects of their lives would work together. He saw and got nauseous by, the googly eyes Luther and Allison gave each other at the table. It was gross, but it was normal. They were having normal, human reactions to each other. It was strange that any part of any of them could be normal. But all the signs of puberty induced interest in girls his age and older were there.

He’d found himself looking her up and down more often than he needed to, he felt flustered when they accidentally brushed their hands together, and he’d been working this next bit over in his head for a week now, “It would. Maybe we could, you know, work on it somewhere a little less stuffy.”

Five turned his head to look away as he felt her looking at him, “Oh? Like where? I like the library.”

“I do too,” he’d thought out a dozen different scenarios for this, but it was harder than he’d thought it would be. It didn’t make sense that this was difficult. It was just talking, “But you can’t eat in here without those old bats making a fuss.”

“So you want to get something to eat together?”

Why couldn’t she just agree to it? The questioning was making this surprisingly hard, “Well, yeah. You like to eat, don’t you?”

“I do. Yes. I can’t be out late though and I don’t really have a lot of money.”

Those were both issues he had, but he was sure they could find a way around the second one at least, “Pizza is cheap.”

“It is. Little Ceaser’s has those five-dollar pizzas.”

“And a couple of sodas.”

For the first time, he saw her cheeks go a little pink before she spoke again, “That sounds like fun.”

Five wasn’t normally one for doing normal things, but this did sound like fun, “Next Saturday then.”

“It’s a date,” she said it rather cheerfully and he liked that. It was a date. He was pretty sure that made him the first of them to have a date. Not that he would brag about it. Bragging would just invite them to pester him about it and for Father to get involved in shutting it down. No reason to risk that.


	3. Chapter 3

It was strange sitting there on the sidewalk bench eating pizza. More stranger than the time they had spent in the library. It was so much more public. A good number of people just walked past them, but sometimes one would stop and ask him if he was one of the Umbrella Academy kids. He’d have to talk to them and deal with them for a minute, but then they could get back to their conversation.

It wasn’t like their other talks. It was more personal. Five liked getting to know Dolores better and she seemed to like getting to know him too. It wasn’t about his powers though. That interested her and he did like talking about it, but she wanted to know other things about him. She liked the band Good Charlotte and told him they were putting out a new album later this year. Five didn’t get much into music, but he was curious to listen to them to see what she liked about it. 

“Peanut butter and marshmallows…” was his response to what his favorite sandwich was.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a marshmallow.”

That was surprising. It wasn’t a strange food, “Really? Who hasn’t eaten a marshmallow?”

Dolores seemed oddly embarrassed by the question. Her cheeks turned pink and she looked down at her feet, “I’m not supposed to eat junk food. My parents are kind of strict about that kind of stuff. Dad’s job is very detail-oriented and he likes to micromanage things like that,” he could relate to that, “I’m not even supposed to have pizza.”

Which made him smile a little, “You said you liked pizza though.”

“Well, Dad works late and Mom drinks herself to sleep, you know, like any dysfunctional family; so I sneak out sometimes.”

“And get pizza?”

“Yes. Is there a problem with that?”

It was actually kind of cute. Kids didn’t usually sneak out to get junk food. They did, but that was because their father was a sadistic bastard. Normal kids used their sneaking out time for seeing people they shouldn’t see or do possibly illegal things. They would sneak out sometimes to go eat doughnuts. He supposed that was on the same level, “No. No problem. I drink coffee sometimes,” Father didn’t approve of coffee, but he liked it. He used to do that on Saturdays, but he’d been spending his Saturdays with Dolores lately, “And eat doughnuts when I’m not supposed to.”

“Maybe we could get doughnuts and coffee next time. I’ve never had coffee before,” which would have been surprising if he didn’t know what he already did. It was 2002, teenagers were different now. It wasn’t strange to see someone their age with a coffee cup sometimes, “I’ve had a doughnut before though.”

“Do you like doughnuts?”

She thought for a minute before answering, “I don’t know. I think you should try something at least twice before you decide if you like it or not.”

Five saw the obvious opening. They were both smart enough to figure it out, but they were also both awkward teenage humans with hormones. Puberty was a bitch. They couldn’t just say it to start with, they had to lead up to it, “That’s true. So maybe you should try them again.”

“ I should, but I’m not sure where to get them,” that was a lie. She’d got one before, so she knew where to get a doughnut if she really wanted it. This back and forth, awkward teenage bullshit wasn’t something he enjoyed. He’d heard and seen One and Three do it at the dinner table enough to know it was stupid and he didn’t like it. But just coming out and asking her out on some kind of a second date was hard.

It wasn’t made easier when he felt something touch his hand. He looked down and saw her hand touching the side of his on the top of the back of the pizza box between them. Five felt a shiver run down his spine and his heart beating a little faster. Now he had to think about what to do with his hand and what he was going to say. 

Did she want to hold hands? That was so cutesy to think about that it hurt. He’d seen plenty of the teenage romance books Three had and he knew that a large portion of what was marketed to their age was stuff like that. It was nauseating. Yet he wanted to try it. They were so isolated from the rest of the world, that making some kind of connection outside of his bubble felt good. Five was used to feeling fairly confident, but he felt a little nervous now. Dealing with the opposite sex was harder than he’d thought it would be.

Do them both at once and get it over with, that seemed like the best option. He was almost ready to do time traveling, so he could handle this. That’s what he kept telling himself. Dealing with girls couldn’t be harder than time travel.

So he moved his hand slightly to put it over top of hers. She didn’t pull away, which helped his nerves, “I’ll take you to Griddy’s next Saturday. If you want to go.”

Dolores’ hand moved under his so they could wrap their hands together, “What about Tuesday? After dinner? Around seven?”

They hadn’t talked about meeting other than around noon on Saturdays. He knew now that she did sneak out of her house sometimes and he had done it before with his siblings to go to Griddy’s, so it wouldn’t be anything either of them hadn’t already done before, “I can do that.”

He should have been leaving, but Five just continued to sit there holding her hand.


	4. Chapter 4

They each had a plate with a doughnut on it and they each had a cup of coffee. They were scooted together in a booth seat in the doughnut shop and the table was covered with notebooks and books. Five had been feeling more eager lately to start trying to experiment with the time travel possibilities of his abilities. He felt ready. Talking with Dolores was a boost to the confidence he already had about it. He was sure she was mostly interested in seeing it herself. She had her doubts about it, so seeing it was definitely something that interested her.

“If you go forward in time, how far forward do you plan to go?” between them, under the table, they were holding hands. It felt nice to do.

“I don’t know. I was thinking about a season,” that seemed reasonable. Just jump to the next season.

“What about your body?”

“What about it?”

With her free hand, she tapped the notebook in front of her, “We already decided that jumping forward wouldn’t age you. Because the act itself doesn’t change the time for you physically. It’s on a different level. It happens too fast for your body to react to the change because if it didn’t, it would be such a shock to your system that it might kill you. So if you jumped three months into the future tomorrow, I’ll be three months older, but you won’t.”

Five didn’t see what the issue was, “It’s just three months. That’s not a big deal.”

“No, but if you decide to do it again, then it’ll be six months. Unfortunately, we’re going through puberty, Five,” she had no issues with talking about those sorts of things, “That can be a lot of time for a lot of changes that your body will miss out on.”

“Then I’ll just travel back.”

“Are you sure you can do that?”

He wasn’t. Moving forward seemed a simpler, though still massively difficult, process. Time naturally moved forward. He could tell that it didn’t like moving back, “Yeah. I can do it,” he stopped for a moment, “I can figure it out. Are you...are you worried about me?”

They hadn’t really talked about whatever this thing between them was. It wasn’t as if they had known each other very long. Just a few months. Still, she was really the first person outside of the academy that he had got close with. He’d done everything he could to keep her separate from his family. It was good for her to suggest meeting on Tuesday this time. Saturdays were getting too predictable. It would throw his siblings off for a little bit for him to just pretend like he was going to his room for the night and teleport out instead, “No. I just…” she turned her head away from him a little and he felt her squeeze his hand a bit, “A little.”

Five smiled. It seemed like a big deal for her to admit that, “I’ll be fine.”

“But what if you’re not? Time travel isn’t a natural thing, Five. It might be something you are capable of doing and what you already do breaks so many laws of physics, but that doesn’t make a natural thing.”

“You saying I’m unnatural?” he didn’t find it insulting.

Dolores sighed softly, “Yes. You are, but you already know that. The things your siblings and you can do are unnatural. However, unnatural things come up in nature all the time. It’s part of evolution. It’s not like you’re a normal part of nature though. You’re a human, Five. That means we have a different capacity to use those unnatural occurrences,” he knew that well enough. Father had turned them into crime-fighting superheroes, “But sometimes doing something unnatural can have bad consequences.”

“Such as…?”

“Fission is the splitting of an atom. Not all atoms will go through fission. Very few actually do under natural, normal, circumstances. Yet when we humans do it, force this unnatural act, look what happens…”

He tried not to laugh, “Are you saying I’m going to go nuclear?”

“No, but something might happen that you can’t reverse. Then where would I be? I’d have to find a new…” she stopped and he felt her kicking her feet a little. The back heel of her shoes knocking against the little barrier of the booth under them.

“Friend?”

“Yes,” Five wanted to ask about a boyfriend, but it felt too soon for that. They were just a couple of twelve-year-olds. They didn’t need those kinds of labels yet. He would have been okay with it though, “If you haven’t noticed, I don’t have a lot of friends,” they had that in common, though for different reasons. 

Dolores was a twelve-year-old girl who would be graduating high school in the next few years. It wasn’t like she was getting invited to high school parties or things like that. If she was, she was smart enough not to go. Kids the age of her school peers wouldn’t want to hang out with her like that unless they had something terrible in mind, “It’s not like I have many either,” he cared about his siblings, but he also had a hard time viewing them as ‘friends’. He didn’t really have personal conversations with them. Vanya was the one he talked to the most and even that was limited.

“So maybe don’t do anything stupid or rash, okay?”

He watched as she leaned her head back on the back of the booth and cocked her head to look at him. Her cheeks were a little pink. The end of one of her braids was sitting on her shoulder, just under where her chin was angled. She had a sequined scrunchy holding the braid together. She liked sequins, “I’ll try.”

It was quick and over with just as fast as it started. Five leaned over and kissed her lightly. Their lips touched just briefly before he sat back. He could feel his own face heating up as they both sat in silence. Maybe it was too soon to have done that? Most of the other things that had been done to try to advance whatever this was between them had been thought out more thoroughly. They had just held hands for the first time less than a week ago. 

Before he could get any kind of response from her, he flicked his eyes up to see his sister looking at the two of them, mouth gaped open, from the door window of the shop. Vanya looked in shock, “Shit,” he cursed under his breath, “I gotta go. I’m sorry,” he wasn’t apologizing for the kiss, but rather for having to leave so abruptly, “Can you be here the same time on Friday?” he let her hand go and started scooting from the booth quickly, “I think...I think we should talk,” he started grabbing up his stuff from the table, “About the whole time travel stuff, I mean,” he didn’t want her to think it was just about the kiss he’d surprised on her, “I gotta go.”

He still didn’t leave her time to respond as he rushed out of the shop. Leaving her to stare after him as he flew out the door. His sister nearly fell back, “Five…”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But Five…”

“Not now!”


	5. Chapter 5

Getting out that Friday was next to impossible. Now that his sister knew where he’d been going, she wasn’t letting up on it. Five wasn’t prone to begging, but he’d begged her not to tell the others. In the end, he had to make a deal with her. He had to try to let Mom come up with a name for him and he had to try not to get into fights with their Father about the whole time travel thing. It had never been important to him, but keeping some kind of privacy was worth it. But his sister kept hounding him about it. The fact that he wouldn’t give up any information about Dolores was getting to her and he knew it was only a matter of time before she might say something to one of the others.

By the time he got away from her on Friday, it was well past the time he’d planned to meet with Dolores. He hurried to the doughnut shop, teleporting along the way to make it faster. Five was disappointed when he walked in and didn’t see her sitting at any of the tables. Maybe she’d already left or maybe she hadn’t come at all.

Sighing, he walked over and slumped down into one of the stools at the counter. The waitress smiled at him, but he just put his head down, “Feeling alright Sweetie?” the waitress asked and he was tempted to snap at her not to call him that.

“Coffee. Please.”

“You sure you want coffee this late? Aren’t you a little young for that?”

Five wanted to snap again, “Please,” he said a little firmer before fishing the few dollars in cash he had out and dropping it on the counter.

“Okay.”

It wasn’t like he had a phone number he could call her at. Even if he did, he wasn’t sure he was ready for that. Calling her meant that her parents might answer and they would want to know why a boy wanted to talk to their daughter. Five wasn’t ready to have a meet-the-parents situation. They were just twelve and this wasn’t that serious, at least he kept telling himself that. Five tried to tell himself that what he enjoyed about spending time with her was that she was intelligent. That it wasn’t anything more than that. Try as he might to be different, deep down he was just a normal teenager. He wouldn’t have kissed her if he wasn’t.

He’d scared her off. It was bad enough that he was some weird freak of nature. She’d tolerated that because the scientific curiosity in her mind made her tolerate it. She’d even entertained them being closer, but he’d pushed it too far. They were just twelve, why did he think now was a good time to be trying to kiss a girl? He had better things to do and worry about. Maybe he’d just craved the normalcy. 

Sitting up, he took a sip of his coffee. It made him wince a little. He was trying to condition himself to like black coffee. 

Did he even like Dolores all that much? It wasn’t like she was that special. She was smart, but she was kind of a pain. She seemed to remind him of what a bad idea some of his plans were. That was a little annoying. She liked pointing out when things he said were contradictive or incorrect. He told himself that he’d liked that about her, but maybe he just found it annoying instead, “Don’t do anything stupid or rash…” he muttered. That’s what she’d said. As if he did stupid or rash things, “I don’t need to hang out with her.”

“That girl is back again. She was here earlier.”

His head snapped up at the waitress talking and he turned around fast on the stool, nearly falling off. Dolores was standing outside the main window on the sidewalk. When she saw him, she turned away fast, but she didn’t walk away. 

Stumbling off the stool and running a hand through his hair, he made his way outside and moved to stand next to her. She was wearing her usual jumper and blazer. Even though school was out for her for the summer, she seemed to still dress like she was ready to go back at any time, “You’re late,” she finally spoke first.

“I, uh, I had some trouble getting out.”

“Coming from someone who can make spacial jumps, I have a hard time believing that.”

Five felt his jaw tighten a little, “Yeah, well, we can’t all be an only child. My Father had to go and adopt a bunch of us. Can’t just run out of the house whenever I want, unless I want them all coming after me,” well, he could, but they would find him eventually. He wouldn’t be surprised if their Father put tracking devices in them as infants.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t make time-specific plans. Someone who is so obsessed with time and the physics of it should understand it a little better.”

Was this their first real fight? They had disagreements on things they were discussing before, but this felt different, “Maybe you should be a little more understanding that I have special circumstances that come up.”

“Because I don’t?”

He shoved his hands into his pockets and kicked a small rock off the sidewalk, “I didn’t say that. I barely know anything about your family to know if you have special circumstances that come up.”

“I do.”

“Fine, you do too. So why don’t you get off my back about it? I like you, so maybe come inside and have a doughnut with me.”

She shifted and he looked at her from the corner of his eye. She fiddled with her bag a little and looked around a bit, “Fine. I like you too.”

They started back into the doughnut shop and he opened the door for her. Before she walked in, he moved to block her a little, “Am I your, you know, boyfriend?”

Dolores fidgeted with her bag again, running her fingers over the little sequin planet on it, “We’re twelve, so does it really matter? But if you want to be...”

It was annoying how difficult going through puberty had to be. There were no straight answers. She could be as critical as she wanted about his studies into time travel or about the authors they read about, but heaven forbid she had to give a straight answer about something personal. He supposed he wasn’t doing any better at it, “If I did, would I be?”

“Yeah.”

“Now what then?”

She smiled a little, “Now you buy your girlfriend a doughnut,” before he got a chance to respond, she leaned in and kissed him lightly on the cheek. It was as brief as their last. He moved to lean back against the door to hold it open as she walked past him.

“I guess I can do that,” he cleared his throat a bit as it cracked a little.


	6. Chapter 6

The messenger bag thudded down on the little table in the doughnut shop and the sequin plant sparkled a little as she plopped down into the booth seat next to him, “Carrying bricks now? High school that rough?”

“It’s my textbooks, idiot.”

“Hey,” he snipped and furrowed his brow.

Dolores sighed softly, “Sorry. The idiocy of my classmates knows no bounds. I’m not sure how much longer I can do this.”

He smiled a little as their hands met under the table and wrapped together, “You say that every week,” they could still only meet up once a week, but they were getting better at sneaking out for it. 

“And I mean it every week. They are so stupid,” she had started her sophomore year mid-August and it was nearly October now. He felt his heart race a little when she leaned over and put her head on his shoulder, “Can you buy me a coffee? I’ll pay you back when I get my allowance.”

Even if she hadn’t offered to pay him back, he would have got it for her, “Yeah.”

“Thanks. I have so much work to do.”

“Want me to help?”

“No. That’s cheating.”

“It’s not cheating. Think of it as tutoring,” he knew he shouldn’t have said that, but he did anyway and he smiled wide as she sat up and glared at him, “What?” he liked when she narrowed her eyes at him. It was cute.

“You think I need tutoring?”

“Of course not. Next to myself, you’re the smartest person I know,” before she could pull her hand out of his to slap his arm, he gripped her hand, “You know I’m just teasing.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“Big word for a twelve-year-old,” the waitress’s voice cut through and they both went silent fast. The pink uniformed waitress smiled at them. Her name tag said ‘Agnes’. She was usually the one here when they showed up, “You two want your usual?” she laughed a little, “Kids having a usual. I have to say, you two are the sweetest thing.”

Five knew the disgust was showing on his face, but he tried to reign it back. Dolores didn’t though, “Two coffees. Black. And could you not comment on things you don’t know about? It might cut into your tip,” he tried not to smirk at her as she spoke.

“And two peanut butter doughnuts,” he added in as the waitress went quiet and just nodded before walking off, “You’re so mean to her.”

“She should mind her own business.”

Five smirked again and reached for her bag, “Let me see your books.”

“Fine,” she reached over and unhooked the clasp so he could reach in.

He turned the first book around in his free hand and looked it over, “Principles of Mathematical Analysis. They gave you this for math class?”

“No. I picked it up myself because their books are seriously lacking. When are schools going to give up on worksheet based textbooks?”

“I don’t know. I guess it makes them feel better to make getting the answer as simple as possible. They can’t all pick up on this stuff as easily as you can, after all,” he’d put the book down and was starting to flip through the pages, “These your notes?” it didn’t look like her handwriting in the margins. The fact that he knew her handwriting was concerning on a small level.

“No. I bought the book used. I prefer to get used ones. Cause if the notes that were in it previously, then it’s even more useful,” he liked that thought, “Though if it’s not, then it’s a little annoying.” 

The waitress came over, her face not as cheery as usual, and she set their drinks and doughnuts down rather curtly before walking off again, “I bet she gave you decaf.”

“I’ll fight her,” he snorted at the commented.

“Just hit her with your bag. It probably weighs a ton anyway.”

“Then you can carry it home for me, Mr. Superhero.”

That gave him pause, “You want me to take you home?” they usually just met up at places. They didn’t really go anywhere once they met up. When it was time to leave, one of them usually left first.

“It’s later than usual and I’m a twelve-year-old girl. What’s the point of having a superhero for a boyfriend if he doesn’t walk me home at night? Plus, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

That was new. Nothing they’d said before couldn’t be said wherever they already were, “Okay,” maybe it had to due with their birthdays. His was on the first of October, like all of his siblings; but her birthday was just the next day. Maybe she wanted to talk about that. Not that it seemed like a private conversation that needed to be had.

Dolores leaned her head back on the back of the booth and looked at him, “I like spending time with you, Five.”

He looked at her curiously, “I like spending time with you too,” he smiled and leaned over to kiss her forehead, “Even if that waitress probably spit in your coffee.”

“Can you get me a new one?”

Five smiled again, “Sure.”


	7. Chapter 7

They didn’t start walking holding hands, simply because it was a first for them, but after the first block or two, they started to. It was nearly midnight, which was much later than they usually stayed out. The street lights were on and headlights lit their way along the sidewalk. The city was always busy. There was never silence. Cars were always running, people were always shouting, and you could never see the night sky from here on the sidewalk. He’d never walked her home before and he wasn’t even sure where she lived. It was kind of nice to know that he would see her house. Everyone knew where he lived, after all.

“What did you want to talk about?”

“I really like spending time with you, Five.”

They had established that in the doughnut shop, “I know.”

“You’re different and not just because of the powers thing. You’re smart and I can talk to you without feeling like I’m hitting my head on a wall,” he understood that. He felt like that talking to his brothers sometimes, “I just really like spending time with you.”

“Is that it?” Dolores stopped suddenly. He watched as she moved to lean up against a fence, “What’s wrong?”

“My dad got reassigned at work.”

“Oh?” he moved to lean up against the fence next to her, “Like a promotion?”

“Yeah. He’s going to be a case manager at work. It’s a really big deal at his office.”

“That sounds like a good thing…”

She nodded lightly, “It is. He gets to deal with a lot of sensitive information, but because of that...we have to move. He needs to be closer to work. Right now, he works at a remote office, but he has to move closer to their headquarters.”

Five felt her hand clench his a little harder and he stared down at his feet, “Where is that?”

“It’s...really far. Like moving to another country far.”

“Oh…”

“We can still write to each other,” Father was both for and against technology. He wanted them to be able to do things without technology to make it easier before he let them use it. It was strange, especially given how Mom was. If they wrote to each other, it would have to be through the mail, “And I’m sure I can come to visit next summer.”

Next summer, “When are you moving?”

“Two weeks.”

That felt so soon. That meant they’d only see each other two more times. At least they could see each other for their birthdays, but it felt so soon, “Why so soon?” she went quiet and kicked her foot a little back against the fence, “Wait, when did you know about this?”

“I’m sorry, Five. I just...I didn’t want to talk about it. It made me upset. But now it’s so soon and I feel bad. I should have told you sooner. I’m sorry.”

“But how long?” he pulled his hand away fast and pushed away from the fence.

“A month,” she said softly.

“Fuck, Dolores, a month?!”

“I said I was sorry! Just because I’m good at math and remembering things doesn’t mean I’m good at dealing with this kind of stuff!”

He stared at her for a minute. She looked like she was going to cry. He knew that look well because Vanya cried a lot. They both might have talked like adults a lot, but she looked so young right now. He probably did too. They were just kids. They’d be thirteen in a few days. They looked like a couple of little kids because that’s what they were, “...It’s late. We should get you home.”

“I’m really sorry, Five.”

He started to walk and she moved to catch up with him. They didn’t hold hands again. She just held onto the strap of her bag and he shoved his hands into his pockets, “I know,” he didn’t feel like accepting her apology yet, but he’d acknowledge it.

Five didn’t even pay that much attention to her house when she said they were at her place, “Do you want to meet up tomorrow?”

That was a first. They’d never met two days in a row. She was trying to make up for the fact that they didn’t have much time left together, “...yeah. Sure.”

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to. I don’t want you to hang out with me if you’re mad at me.”

He huffed a little, “I’m not mad at you. I’m just...upset. By the situation. Not you.”

“So you do want to meet up tomorrow then?”

Five tried to smile a little, “Yeah. I can’t give you your birthday present if we don’t hang out.”

He looked up to see her staring a little wide-eyed at him and her cheeks red in the streetlights, “You got me a present?”

“Of course I did. Did you get me something?”

“...no.”

Five laughed and moved in to kiss her cheek, “You don’t have to. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.”

As he started down the sidewalk, he felt a heavy pit in his stomach. They didn’t get a lot of chances to be social with people outside of their family. He’d managed to not only do that but to do it almost secretly for months. Vanya knew, but apparently that didn’t matter. In two more weeks, he would be back to having no one but his family again.


	8. Chapter 8

They didn’t get to spend any time together on either of their birthdays. Father didn’t really celebrate it, but Mom and Pogo did. His siblings liked to as well. So he was stuck with his family all day. She seemed to have the same issue with her family, even though she didn’t have siblings. They wanted her home all day. They were able to meet up a few days afterward though. It would be one of the last chances they got to spend time together. She’d be moving in a few days.

“Five, how did you get this? It just came out the other day?” she asked excitedly as she turned the cd over in her hands. It was the new Good Charlotte album. He’d listened to the band a few times and he wasn’t sure what she liked about it. They sounded like any other whiny boy band that wanted to be punk without being punk. He was sure she liked it because she was a teenage girl. 

“I’m a superhero, remember? I have connections,” granted they had only been open to the public since the beginning of the year. He’d also told Mom it’s what he wanted for his birthday. Mom always asked them what they wanted. 

“I’m sure you do, Big Man,” Dolores teased, “Thank you,” she leaned over and kissed his cheek, “I really like it.”

“I’m glad.”

“Here’s your coffee, you two,” Agnes set the mugs down in front of them, “You two are so sweet,” despite Dolores’ snappy comments, the older woman was always back at it the next time they came in. 

He kept his eyes down and tried to hide his smirk, “Thanks, but we’re breaking up in a few days, so maybe just go about your job and leave us alone, okay?”

He waited until Agnes left, but he inhaled sharply, “Wow. That was brutal.”

“She doesn’t have to talk to everyone.”

“It’s part of her job.”

She chose to change the subject, “I got you a present too.”

“Really?”

“I wasn’t going to, because we hadn’t discussed gift-giving, but you decided to get me something…”

“I could take it back.”

“No. No,” she quickly shoved the cd into her bag, “It’s okay,” and she pulled a book out to hand to him.

The book cover was faded yellow and the dustcover was a little cracked from age, “Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid,” he said the title out loud.

“You don’t already have it, do you?”

“No,” Five was already carefully opening it and turning the aged pages, “How much did you spend on this?” he knew new paperbacks could be gotten cheaply, but this was an old hardback.

“Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t much. Do you like it?”

Of course he did. It was a book that had been on his list to read. He could have asked his Father to get it for him, but that might clue the man into what Five had been planning. He wasn’t ready to confront his Father just yet, “Yes. A lot.”

They both went silent for a long time. He set the book on the table, resting one hand on top of it. They just sipped their coffee quietly. Neither of them wanted to talk much because the only thing they had to talk about was what was going to happen in a few days. They were thirteen now, but only by a few days and thirteen really wasn’t much different from twelve. There wasn’t anything they could do to change the situation. It wasn’t like she could just stay here to finish school.

It dawned on Five that this was bound to happen eventually anyway. Even if she stayed all the way through high school, she would have to leave for college. He had his doubts that Father was going to let them go easily even once they were all eighteen.

“Do you want to hang out again tomorrow?” she finally asked.

He did. Five wanted to come here every day and just sit and drink coffee with her, “I can’t. I got family stuff,” which was getting worse and worse by the day. It was like their Father knew they were getting to the age where they wanted to develop more individually and was packing their schedules so full that they barely had time to breathe, “What about the day after?”

“I have to pack…”

The silence returned. What more was there to say? It wasn’t going to be easy, “You’ll be back in the summer, right?”

“Yeah. I’ll convince Mom to bring me. I’ll tell her I need to do a college prep thing at the library. She’ll believe it.”

It felt like so far away. Seven months was a long time. It wasn’t like he was worried about her meeting another guy. She was in high school and there was no chance of her meeting another boy checking out the kind of books she read and be her age again. But it was still a long time. What if, in that time, the appeal of how smart he was got overshadowed by how weird he was? Maybe she wouldn’t want to hang out with a freak of nature anymore. 

“When you get a phone set up at the new house, you’ll call me?” he’d avoided the phone situation because he didn’t want to deal with the whole parents thing, but if they wanted to keep in touch they had limited options.

“Of course.”

More silence. This was hard. They were emotionally mature enough for this. They had pretended to be mature enough to do this sort of thing, but they weren’t. They could drink as much coffee as they wanted and talk about quantum mechanics until they were blue in their faces, but they were teenagers with new hormones tormenting them.

“I’ll call you before I leave.”

Five nodded. There wasn’t anything else to say. No, that wasn’t true. There was one more thing. He cleared his throat a little and raised his hand up, “Can we get our check?” his voice cracked a little as he addressed the waitress behind the counter.


End file.
